Welcome to Business Consultant Weekly

Vol. 2 Issue # 6 February 8, 1999

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In this issue:

1) Tip of the Week

2) FEATURE ARTICLE: Entrepreneurophobia! --Part 2 by Walt Goodridge

3) CLASSIFIEDS

4) FREE Resources

5) MARKETING MINUTE: Increase Your Profits With Effective Follow Up by Bob Leduc.

"Tip of the Week"

Last week we started a short series on saving time. If you missed it, you can go back and retrieve it at <http://netcheckspayroll.com/BCWv2issue5.html>. Here are a few more ideas:

11. Organize. Use active and inactive filing systems.

12. Allocate. Set aside a certain day each month for financial management.

13. Procrastinate effectively. Prioritize tasks by deadline and move leftovers to the next day's list.

14. Eliminate clutter. Schedule in time for periodic sorting, discarding and giving away or selling items you no longer need.

15. Become inefficient when necessary. If you know your client is going to be late, be late as well and squeeze in an extra half-hour of work.

16. Don't procrastinate in relationships. Return all calls and correspondence the same day.

17. Do your least favorite tasks first, not the easiest. It will make the rest of your day a breeze.

18. Analyze. Deal with each situation the most effective way, i.e., by phone, mail or in person.

19. Delegate. Give lesser tasks away and spend your time on the important stuff.

20. Automate. Use credit cards for phone or mail order purchases. This gives you an added benefit of record keeping for tax preparation.

More next week....

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FEATURE ARTICLE

Learn the Secret of How to "ICE" Your Fears in Entrepreneurophobia--Part 2!

If you missed Part 1 go to <http://netcheckspayroll.com/BCWv2issue5.html>

Copyright © 1994 by Walt Goodridge. (Originally published in The Fever Magazine)

As promised, here's valuable information on managing your fears! ICE-ing your fears.

Like most entrepreneurs, I struggled to make my business more and more successful. At times, I encountered numerous obstacles which I feared were threatening my dreams. At other times I knew exactly what I had to do, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. For instance, I remember at one point being afraid to send out too many advance copies of my first book, This Game of Exposure for fear that some more established person or company would simply steal my idea and run me out of business. However, once I learned the four truths of fears, I developed my own technique for conquering them: ICE-ing. To ICE your fears, you must first (I)dentify, then (C)onfront, and finally (E)liminate them. Let's take a closer look at each step.

Identifying your fears. The first step in conquering your fears is to be honest with yourself. Once you've admitted to yourself that fear is the reason you are not doing what you should be doing, then ask yourself, what am I afraid of? Try putting into words exactly what the consequences are that you fear. Don't be surprised if at first you can't come up with any real reasons. With practice you'll become more aware of what's really going on in your head, and as you keep questioning each reason, you'll get to the bottom line. Forcing yourself to put your feelings and fears into words helps you to make sense of them, and to understand yourself.

Confronting your fears. Confronting your fear means accepting that you have them, and accepting what they say about you. In other words, you may not like that you are the type of person who is frightened by what others think of you, and so you'd rather remain a definite failure than a possible success. But, unless you accept these truths about yourself, you won't be able to get to the next level.

Eliminating your fears. The basis of fear is uncertainty. You are fearful of what you perceive might happen, but you do not actually know what will happen. Fear is how we react when we "don't know". Your goal then, in conquering your fears, is to find the answer to the "what will happen if..?" question. Once you realize this, you'll realize that only one thing can accomplish this: Action! Action eliminates fear. Remember, we said that your fear is based on the fact that you don't know. So, once you take action, you'll immediately "know" what the consequences are. You may fail, or you may succeed, but at least you'll know the answer to the "what will happen if....?" question. The fear has been eliminated. If you don't take action, you'll live the rest of your life with that single burning question: What if I had? Remember: A fear avoided lingers for eternity. A fear confronted dies in a second.

Now none of this is intended to imply that it's going to be easy. Being an entrepreneur is about taking risks. Risk taking requires courage. Despite what many people believe, however, courage is not the absence of fear, it is action despite the fear! The fears never stop coming. As you conquer one, another appears to take its place. What you can change, however, is how you react to them. Eventually, what others will consider your fearless approach to life, you'll know simply as a commitment to action in the face of fear. You wont be eliminating your fears, you'll be eliminating your fear of your fears! And that, future Hip Hop Entrepreneur, is the key to success!

To help you on the journey of developing the courage you need here are some other tips

Start small: building up the courage to tackle your fears takes practice. Start with the easier problems and work your way up to the bigger issues.

Make daily affirmations: An affirmations is a statement of a desired outcome stated in the present tense. "I am a successful entrepreneur". "My company is making enough money to support me." These are examples of effective affirmations that you can write on 3"X5" index cards and read them to yourself in the mornings and in the evenings. What you'll be doing is reprogramming your mind to think in terms of success!

Read motivational books It's normal that your energy level will fluctuate. Several good books exist which can help you keep the motivation high. They can usually be found in the self-help or psychology sections of your local bookstore. Live Your Dreams, by Les Brown, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, The Master Key to Riches and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill are some of my favorites. I usually provide a success reading list in all my books!

Hang out with positive people like you Misery (and failure) loves company! Stay away from negative thinkers and align yourself with people who are going or are already where you want to be!

Hip Hop Culture, from Music to Art to Dance, is filled with opportunity. The only reason more of us aren't taking the plunge is fear of the unknown brought about by years of conditioning. Those of us who sit on the sidelines will forever wonder what might have been. Those of us who are willing to take a chance will grow and eventually be able to live our dreams of being successful Hip Hop Entrepreneurs!! Success is journey, not a destination! Peace.

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Walt Goodridge is an entrepreneur and author of several books. His company, Niche Market Exclusives, publishes his books and other "success tools", which he creates especially for MLM Entrepreneurs, Hip Hop Entrepreneurs, Internet Entrepreneurs and others to show how to succeed in business. For a free brochure, call 301-587-9226! or visit the site at http://members.aol.com/nichemrket

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MARKETING MINUTE

Increase Your Profits With Effective Follow Up Copyright 1998 By Bob Leduc.

Everybody knows that sales are vital to building a profitable business. But, few people understand the importance of maintaining a permanent reservoir of potential customers (I call them "hot prospects") from which sales can be made now or very soon. The majority of businesses put most of their time and effort into continually attracting new prospects. They spend very little or no time and effort on following up with previous prospects. Attracting new prospects is important. It's also expensive. Following up with previous prospects is important, too. In comparison with finding new prospects, it's very inexpensive.

If you're in business, don't overlook the "acres of diamonds" in your own backyard. You've already devoted the time and spent the money to attract these previous prospects. Most of them who haven't yet bought from you still have an interest in your product or service. It just wasn't convenient for them to take action at the time you communicated with them. You can still get business from these prospects if you stay in contact with them. The cost of getting business by following up with previous prospects will be very low in comparison to getting business by finding fresh, new prospects.

How do you handle these previous prospects to keep your name in front of them without becoming a pest? I'll give you two "real life" examples from my own experience. One is a traditional, postal mail technique. The other is an online, e-mail technique. Adapt either or both examples to your operation. You'll see an immediate increase in business with little or no expense.

FOLLOW UP BY POSTAL MAIL

Before retiring, I was in the financial services sales business. Most of our business came from sales of life insurance and mutual funds. Because the client sees no immediate reward for buying life insurance or setting up an investment account, most people tend to delay taking action. There is never a right time to start. I became very proficient at staying in contact with potential clients. As a result, most of my new business came from prospects I met months or even years earlier.

Every 3 months I sent a postcard to each previous prospect offering them something of value. This was usually a free report or booklet of useful information related in some way to financial planning. The postcard kept my name in front of them. Plus, every time they responded to request the new information, I had another opportunity to talk with them about their financial planning. Best of all, the discussion was always conducted under favorable circumstances because they requested the communication. Not me.

If you implement this type of follow up, here are two suggestions:

1. Use postcards with just a brief message. They will get read by almost 100% of the recipients. Postcards are easy to print and they're very inexpensive. Plus, the postage for sending a postcard in the US is only 20 cents... and you get First Class Mail service.

2. Send approximately the same number of postcards every week instead of sending a large number at one time every few months. You don't want to generate 250 inquiries this week and none for the next 3 months. You won't be able to follow up on all of them while they are still "fresh". What you want is 20 inquiries per week every week so you can follow up with each one as soon as you get it... while they still have a high level of interest.

FOLLOW UP BY E-MAIL

The other example of successful follow up involves e-mail. Since retiring, I've written a manual and several reports that I sell on the Internet. E-mail inquiries go to one of my autoresponders or come directly to me. All of them receive an offer with a special price deadline about 15 days in the future. About half of the orders I get come from this first contact. However, the other half results from my follow ups. I use 2 methods of follow up:

1. Five days before the Special Price deadline, I send a brief e-mail message reminding the prospect that the Special Price Offer is about to expire. The reminder includes an offer to send another copy of the original message if the prospect doesn't have it. Only about 10%-15% request the information again. Almost all of them place an order.

2. Every 2 months I follow up again with a brief e-mail reminder of the original request and offer to send my current Special Price Offer if the prospect requests it. Usually 20%-30% will request it.

About 50% of my total sales results from inquiries generated by these 2 types of follow up messages. I would have only half as much business if I didn't send those follow up messages. What does it cost me to generate this additional business? Nothing. The money was already spent to get the first reply.

Implementing a follow up procedure can substantially increase your volume of business. Because following up is so inexpensive, the business it produces is very profitable.

Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a Sales Consultant. Bob recently wrote a manual for small business owners titled "How to Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards" and several other publications to help small businesses grow and prosper. For more information... Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Postcards". Phone: (702) 658-1707 (After 10 AM Pacific time) Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133

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